Life becomes a real drag after city’s gay bar closes

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For four years it stood as an oasis of tolerance in Jerusalem: a place where drag queens, ultra-Orthodox Jews and Palestinians could hang out, dance and drink pints, side by side.

But Shushan, the city’s only gay and lesbian bar, has closed, leaving its loyal patrons with a deep sense of loss. “Shushan was one of the few places where we could feel that we were in a free world,” said Yan Carmel, 21, a Hebrew University student who is a member of a gay youth coalition.

In this conservative holy city, where a gay pride parade can bring rare